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Avios sale – £1 Reward Flight Saver routes launch and are bookable now

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Today sees the launch of one of the most interesting parts of the 2014 Avios ‘sale’!

(Don’t forget, though, that until noon today – Monday – the previous offer is still running.  Until 12pm, you can still book a hotel in Vienna, Dubrovnik, Prague, Copenhagen, Berlin, Budapest, Istanbul and The Algarve for 50% off!  The 50% discount applies whether you pay by Avios or by cash, and you can stay up to 30th September.  Full details are in this article.)

These flights are already bookable – at least for some routes – as at 8am on Monday!  Until noon on Wednesday, the taxes on Reward Flight Saver tickets will be dropped from £35 to just £1.

The following routes are included:

Amsterdam

Barcelona

Dublin

Jersey

Lisbon

Madrid

Nice

Rome

You will need to fly between 31 January and 31 May.

Only economy seats are available.

One way flights are available for 4,500 Avios plus 50p.

It works OK with UK connections as well, so a one-way Manchester-Heathrow-Amsterdam is still just 4,500 Avios plus 50p.

Remember that avios.com has greater reward availability than ba.com for economy short-haul flights.  (I think avios.com can access G availability, if these things mean anything to you!)  You should therefore look via avios.com and not ba.com, and use ‘Combine My Avios’ to move your points across.

ba.com should only be used for open-jaws (if allowed) or stopovers (if allowed in London on regional departures) which avios.com cannot handle.  The only exception to this is for BA Executive Club Gold card holders, who get additional economy seats made available to them and will therefore be better off looking at ba.com.

Remember, though, that you can only book Reward Flight Saver tickets on avios.com if you have ‘earned’ an Avios point in that scheme in the last 12 months.

There is little point opening an avios.com account today (with the intent to make a transfer of Avios from ba.com) because you will not be able to book Reward Flight Saver tickets. Unless, that is, you spend £31 to buy 1,000 Avios in avios.com to activate the account – although this may make sense if you want to make a number of bookings and can see availability at avios.com which is not at ba.com.

The avios.com flight booking page is here.

If you need to cancel, the standard £25 fee should not apply as long as you cancel online.  You will only lose your £1.  All your Avios points will be returned.


How to earn Avios from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

In February 2022, Barclaycard launched two exciting new Barclaycard Avios Mastercard cards with a bonus of up to 25,000 Avios. You can apply here.

You qualify for the bonus on these cards even if you have a British Airways American Express card:

Barclaycard Avios Plus card

Barclaycard Avios Plus Mastercard

Get 25,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £10,000 Read our full review

Barclaycard Avios card

Barclaycard Avios Mastercard

5,000 Avios for signing up and an upgrade voucher at £20,000 Read our full review

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the famous annual 2-4-1 voucher Read our full review

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending £15,000 Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points. These points convert at 1:1 into Avios.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital on Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios.

Capital on Tap Business Rewards Visa

Huge 30,000 points bonus until 12th May 2024 Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus.

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

There are also generous bonuses on the two American Express Business cards, with the points converting at 1:1 into Avios. These cards are open to sole traders as well as limited companies.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

Comments (170)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Johnny5a says:

    just logged into BAEC and did a search for JER in August no £1 just the normal price of Avios + Taxes, am I missing something?

    • BERbound says:

      its only valid untill 31st May.

      • Johnny5a says:

        ahh thanks, first 6 months congested … i was looking for something to fill the gap in the summer.

    • Callum says:

      Are you looking before the end of May? I just booked AMS-LGW in April and LGW-JER in May for £0.50.

  • Howard says:

    seems nothing from City!!!

  • thepearce says:

    Bang on the money as always Raffles. Had an alarm set on my phone but luckily visited your page at 8:28.

    Trip to Nice for early May Bank Holiday. Thanks.

  • renaud says:

    Just tried for a London Gatwick – Nice in February on avios.com , I’m quoted 9000 avios + £83 taxes/fees, RFS doesn’t even seem to apply.
    Same for Lyon (although expected not to be £1, not on the list), around £100 quoted, RFS doesn’t seem to apply

    • nux says:

      You need to earn 1 avios on avios.com (transfers don’t count) to be eligible for RFS.

    • Ann Rowsell says:

      I was looking for Nice as well: only business class available through Avios on the dates I wanted, which was 9000 points + £25 one-way. Went to BAEC and got the exact returns flights I was after 9000 +£1 return.

      • Rob says:

        Very odd. Looks like avios.com is not syncing properly. There is NO reason, unless you are BA Gold, for ba.com to have better availability – it should be worse.

        • Rich. S says:

          Agree, Raffles, but we too have just found this.
          NO availability on Avios on the deal (CE available) but 6 seats in ET on BAEC.

          Which is weird….. As usually Avios have extra availability….

          So booked Avios to Amsterdam, BAEC back to get our week end at the end of April.

          • squills says:

            Others are reporting the opposite Rich.

            As it happens, on the 5 (non £1 RFS) flights I booked this morning for Xmas, there were 7 Avios seats available on avios.com and ZERO on BAEC for the same flight/ day. All gone now so glad I booked us in 😉

            It certainly pays to look at availability on both sites and have the facility to move Avs around to take advantage.

  • Fbo says:

    Hi,
    Similar issues here: I can’t see a RFS London – Rome. Also there are no signs of ‘sales £1’ in the avios.com website when I log in.
    Thanks

  • Lucy says:

    keep getiing ‘Unfortunately our systems are not responding, so we are unable to process your request at the moment.’ changed browser to no effect

  • iHK says:

    Not working for me, every combination I try, I get the following error message: “Sorry, there’s a problem with booking this journey online. You can try selecting other flights or contact us so an agent can help you book the flights you have selected”

    Any ideas? Should I call up or wait until the sale officially goes live?

    • iHK says:

      Ok, worked out my problem – our ‘infant’. I’ve upgraded her to a ‘child’ and now looks to be working fine.

  • Fionn G says:

    How do you log onto the avios website? I’m trying to log in with my BA log in and password but its not working. I’m guessing your BA number isn’t the same as your avios number? Is that right? How do you find your avois number?

    Many thanks in advance,

    Fionn

    • nux says:

      Avios.com is separate to BA.

    • Rob says:

      You need a separate account. However, unless you have earned 1 Avios in avios.com, you can’t book Reward Flight Saver, so it is pointless signing up now.

      • Jules says:

        Hey Raffles – what’s the easiest way to earn that 1 point? Even if not for now, would be useful to get that out the way for next time…

        • Rob says:

          Join erewards via avios.com. You get 750 Avios for your first survey, even if you don’t complete it fully.

          Note that the Avios need to be manually sent across from erewards after your first survey, though – they do not go across automatically.

          Should have them within 10 days of signing up.

          Or, of course, do a Tesco transfer. Minimum £2.50 is OK.

        • Simon says:

          If you’ve got Facebook you could try the Avios Suitcase app as well Julie, posts have posted the next day for some people so you might be able to use avios.com for this sale https://headforpoints.com/2013/10/16/earn-390-avios-for-free-with-facebook-app-avios-suitcase/

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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